View
comments
Only disabled actors should play Richard III, the head of the Royal Shakespeare Company has suggested.
Gregory Doran, who has been in charge of the organisation since 2012 and is now set to leave the RSC, said it was no longer accepted to not cast a disabled person in the role.
Richard III who is referred to in the Shakespeare play as 'cheated of feature' and 'unfinished' is traditionally played with a hunchback or cane.
Mr Doran's late husband, Anthony Sher, gave several performances in the role - using a crutch - in a 1984 Royal Shakespeare Company performance in Stratford-Upon-Avon.
However, speaking to the Times in his first interview since his husband's death, he said Sher's performance would 'no longer be acceptable'.
There has been an ongoing debate whether abled bodied actors should play disabled characters with Eddie Redmayne facing criticism for playing Stephen Hawking.
Gregory Doran, who has been in charge of the organisation since 2012 and is now set to leave the RSC, said it was no longer accepted to not cast a disabled person in the role. Pictured: Mr Doran's late husband Antony Sher playing Richard III in a Royal Shakespeare Company performance in 1988
Mr Doran, outgoing RSC chair compared the casting of disabled actors as Richard III to the casting of black actors as Othello (pictured the Globe Theatre in London, associated with Shakespeare)
Mr Doran
